5.  The applicant was born in 1972 and lives in Yaroslavl.
6.  On 23 June 2002 the applicant tried to smuggle alcohol to his friends, who were detained in prison. When police officers Mr S. and Mr A. tried to arrest him he apparently resisted the arrest. Subsequently, the applicant was accused of assaulting officer S.
7.  In October 2002 the applicant was charged with violence against a public official. The investigator in the Zavolzhskiy district prosecutor's office of Yaroslavl noted in his decision that the applicant had committed an administrative offence of smuggling prohibited goods to detainees; he had resisted lawful arrest during the commission of that offence; the latter act constituted a criminal offence punishable under Article 318 of the Criminal Code. The investigator's decision also contained a list of procedural rights under Article 47 of the Russian Code of Criminal Procedure (see paragraph 20 below). It appears that the applicant was given a copy of the above decision.
8.  During the preliminary investigation, officer S. explained that on 23 June 2002 when together with officer A. he was patrolling in the vicinity of the prison they had noticed the applicant and two other persons throwing certain objects over the prison wall. When they had attempted to arrest them, the applicant and others had assaulted them and tried to escape. Officer A confirmed his fellow officer's statement.
9.  The applicant disagreed with their version of the events and claimed in essence that the police officers had been drunk and had beaten him up and shot his friend.
10.  At the trial, on 5 November 2002 the applicant made a written statement declining the services of his counsel. He declared that this waiver was not based on any “financial considerations” and that he would continue to ensure his own defence. The hearing was adjourned because certain witnesses, including officers S. and A., had not answered the court summons.
11.  Thereafter, the trial court received a note of a telephone conversation between the court registry and A.'s grandmother. The latter explained that Mr A. had resettled to Moscow for permanent residence; that she had informed him on 5 November 2002 about the court summons and that he had asked her to inform the court that he maintained his earlier statement and could not attend the trial because his wife was about to be admitted to a maternity hospital.
12.  On 11 November 2002 the trial judge received a note of a telephone conversation between the court registry and investigator M., who informed the judge that Mr A. had reportedly moved to the Moscow Region without giving his new address; Mr S. was still an officer and was living at the same address.
13.  On 15 November 2002, noting the officers' absence, the trial judge enquired with the parties as to the admission in evidence of the officers' pre-trial statements. As can be seen from the trial verbatim record, both the prosecutor and the applicant consented to the reading out of the officers' pre-trial statements.
14.  The court also referred to the statements from the prison guard Mr P., who had been on duty that day and had seen several persons throwing certain objects over the prison wall. The court also heard guard K., who had been patrolling at the territory of the prison and had seen the bottles being thrown over the prison wall. According to two medical reports, Mr S. and Mr A. were sober on 23 June 2002 and Mr S. had various injuries on his body. During a pre-trial identification, he had pointed to the applicant as his assailant.
15.  The court rejected as unreliable the applicant's version of the events, which was supported by three witnesses on his behalf. The court also dismissed the fourth witness's allegation that one of the officers had been drunk on 23 June 2002.
16.  By a judgment of 18 November 2002, the Zavolzhskiy District Court of Yaroslavl convicted the applicant as charged and sentenced him to three years and six months' imprisonment.
17.  The applicant appealed contending that the court had not given a proper weight to the fact that despite the summons Mr S. and Mr A. had not appeared before the trial court and thus had not been examined at the trial.
18.  On 14 January 2003 the Yaroslavl Regional Court upheld the judgment in the following terms:
“The court rightly founded the judgment on the testimonies by S. and A. because those testimonies are coherent, non-contradictory and correspond to the actual circumstances of the case. They were corroborated by other evidence presented in the judgment, such as the medical report indicating that S. had [injuries], P.'s statement..., K.'s statement...The reference to the failure of S. and A. to appear before the court on the summons is not a valid reason for annulment of the judgment because the court obtained the parties' opinion on the possibility of reading out their depositions in view of their absence from the trial; [the applicant] did not object to the reading out...”
19.  In 2003 the Regional Court dismissed the applicant's request for supervisory review of the above judgments. In 2007 the Prosecutor of the Yaroslavl Region applied for supervisory review, considering that there was no corpus delicti and that there was no case to answer against the applicant. On 25 October 2007 the Acting President of the Regional Court dismissed the prosecutor's application and refused leave to supervisory review.